| Chicago Public Schools | |
|---|---|
Educate. Inspire. Transform. |
|
| Type and location | |
| Type | Public School District |
| Established | 1837[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
| District Info | |
| Superintendent | Jean-Claude Brizard |
| Schools | 675 (2009-2010)[2] |
| Students and staff | |
| Students | 409,279 (2009-2010)[2] |
| Teachers | 21,320 (2009-2010)[2] |
| Student-teacher ratio |
20.0 to 1 (elementary schools) 24.6 to 1 (high schools)[2] |
| Other information | |
| Website | http://www.cps.edu |
Chicago Public Schools, commonly abbreviated as CPS by local residents and politicians and officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons,[3] is a large school district that manages over 600 public elementary and high schools[2] in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Public Schools is currently the third largest school district in the United States, with more than 400,000 students enrolled in the school district.[2] The position of CEO of the CPS was created by Mayor Richard M. Daley after he convinced the Illinois State Legislature to place CPS under the mayor's control. Illinois school districts are generally governed by locally-elected school boards, where each district board hires a superintendent, who in turn hires administrators such as principals, who then must be approved by the school board. In contrast, Chicago Public Schools has a Board of Education whose members are appointed by the mayor, essentially making the entire system completely accountable to the mayor. CPS is headquartered in the 125 South Clark Street building in the Chicago Loop.
Jean-Claude Brizard is the current CEO of Chicago Public Schools (CPS).[4] A previous CEO, Arne Duncan, became Secretary of Education under President Barack Obama.
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CPS is a vast system of primary, secondary, and disability schools confined to Chicago's city limits. This system is the second largest employer in Chicago with over 43,000 employees.[5]
Most schools in the district, being prekindergarten-8, elementary, middle, or secondary, have attendance boundaries, restricting student enrollment outside of any given residential area. A school may elect to enroll students outside their attendance boundaries if there is space, and or if it has a magnet cluster program. Full magnet schools, such as Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy, are open to student enrollment citywide, provided that applicants meet a level of high academic standards: living near a magnet school does not guarantee admission. Magnets offer a variety of academic programs with various focuses (agriculture, fine arts, international baccalaureate, Montessori, Math, Literature, and Paideia programs, among others). The Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) is the system's only audition based performing and visual arts high school. Chicago was the largest city in the country without a public high school for the arts until the establishment of ChiArts in 2009.
The school system contains two levels of elementary-middle school programs which make selective admission only.
Regional gifted centers have an area of focus (such as math and science) and require one type of assessment. There are eleven regional gifted centers:
Classical schools, in contrast to regional gifted centers, take a liberal arts approach focusing on all areas. Classical school applications thus require a different type of assessment. There are five classical schools:
At the secondary level, CPS operates nine selective enrollment high schools.[6] These are;
Selective Enrollment high schools work on a point system out of 900 points:,[7]
Competition is fierce, and many factors decide whether students are admitted or not:
In addition to the selective enrollment high schools, a number of other possibilities exist for high school students. These include military academies, career academies, and charter schools. Lincoln Park High School and Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center are neighborhood "magnet" high schools, which also offer various honors programs to students citywide. More specialized options, such as the Chicago High School for the Arts and the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences are also available.
In partnership with various Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs, six high schools are operated as public military academies.
Within Chicago Public Schools, 9 high schools have been designated as "Career Academies". According to CPS, these schools have "intensified resources to prepare students for careers in business/finance, communications, construction, health, hospitality/food service, manufacturing, performing arts, and transportation. Vocational shops, science labs, broadcast journalism labs and media/computer centers help students gain 'hands on' experience."[8] As of the '09-'10 academic year, these schools were active career academies.
Chicago has a growing number of Charter Schools which receive nearly all of their operating budgets from the same tax sources as CPS. Charter schools receive about 70% - 75% of the operating expense per pupil afforded regular district schools, but charters, unlike regular district schools, must pay facilities costs from per student allocations. Charter school teachers, who must be certified or "highly qualified," as defined in the Illinois Charter School Act, may unionize, although they are not required to. In 2009 the number of charters available in Illinois was increased from 60 to 125 by the state legislature. Up to 45 charters may be issued in Chicago.
The main offices of Chicago Public Schools are located in the 125 South Clark Street building in the Chicago Loop.[9] The 20 story building, managed by MB Real Estate, and originally built as the Commercial National Bank,[10] has 570,910 square feet (53,039 m2) of space.[11]
The April 21, 2006 issue of the Chicago Tribune revealed a study released by the Consortium on Chicago School Research that stated that 6 of every 100 CPS freshmen would earn a bachelor's degree by age 25. 3 in 100 black or Latino men would earn a bachelor's degree by age 25. The study tracked Chicago high school students who graduated in 1998 and 1999. 35% of CPS students who went to college earned their bachelor's degree within six years, below the national average of 64%.[2]
Chicago has a history of high dropout rates, with around half of students failing to graduate for the past 30 years. Criticism is directed at the CPS for inflating its performance figures. Through such techniques as counting students who swap schools before dropping out as transfers but not dropouts, it publishes graduation claims as high as 71%. Nonetheless, throughout the 1990s actual rates seem to have improved slightly, as true graduation estimates rose from 48% in 1991 to 54% in 2004.[12]
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